Deficit Expected to Hit $9 Trillion for Decade

"The Obama administration, citing an economic downturn that has been deeper than it had first thought, raised its estimate on Tuesday of the government's deficit over the next decade to $9 trillion from $7.1 trillion," reports the New York Times.

"White House officials predicted that the budget deficit this year will peak at $1.5 trillion, though they said the 2009 shortfall will be about $261 billion lower than they had predicted in May. The main reason is that officials have decided that they will not need another round of bailout money for the nation's banks."

However, Politico notes that the White House claims "more than half of the projected deficits over the next 10 years are directly attributable to the previous Administration's failure to follow the pay-as-you-go principle."